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Christie's voice needed; Controlling growth

By: Letters

June 4, 2013Updated: June 4, 2013 at 8:35 am

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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks in front of the Asbury Park Convention Hall in Asbury Park, N.J., before introducing President Barack Obama, Tuesday, May 28, 2013. Obama toured sites along the New Jersey shore hit hard by last year's Superstorm Sandy Tuesday together with Christie. (AP Photo/The Record of Bergen County, Kevin R. Wexler)

Chris Christie for president? It is really too soon to tell if he can really make a run.

I think the main problem for Christie is the thing I like best about him. He has no problem telling exactly how it is very bluntly. Too many people get put off by this including very vocal labor groups.

Win or lose, I think his voice is needed in the next race. Everything I have read or seen so far tells me he is really a center-right individual, which I believe is needed.

Dean Nyquist, Colorado Springs

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An admission of powerlessness

Columnist Leonard Pitts is right on target.

Terrorism will appear whenever the legitimate aspirations of a people - political, economic or cultural - are systematically denied.

The large majority will attempt redress through legitimate means. But if progress is blocked, radical factions will break off and embrace violence as the only solution.

Violence hardens the regime, leading the terrorists to still greater violence. As the regime learns to protect itself, innocent citizens are increasingly targeted.

The process is the same regardless of geography, culture or time. It has occurred in countries as diverse as Russia, Ireland, Sri Lanka, Germany - and today, the broad Middle East.

Regardless of the damage caused, no terrorist organization in history has achieved meaningful change. Terrorism is, as Pitts writes, an admission of ultimate powerlessness.

Jacek Popiel, Colorado Springs

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Impossible to grow forever

"Data show decrease in number of people moving to El Paso Co." (May 28, The Gazette) laments the significant decline in people moving to the Colorado Springs metro area. The fundamental assumption of the story is slower population growth is bad for the city. "Blame" was attributed.

An economist offers "the best way to get more people to move to El Paso County." The unexamined assumption here is that "attracting people" is a good and universally supported strategy for our city.

The irony in this story, however, is quite informative. It's noted that people are moving here from California. The economist interviewed explains, "People from California and companies move here to get away from there. What we can offer in terms of cost of doing business and quality of life is so much greater."

Why does California have lower quality of life and higher cost of doing business? It's because the state was so successful at attracting people.

Hopelessly overcrowded, California has 8 of the 10 most polluted cities in the U.S. The state has strict environmental regulations just so its 38 million residents can live peacefully together and survive their pollution.

I find it tragically humorous so many in our town, including the reporter who wrote this story, assume following in California's footsteps will give us a healthy economy (healthier than California's). But what's really ludicrous is the notion we can somehow do that without meeting the same fate as California - low quality of life and high cost of doing business.

It is physically impossible for our community to grow forever. The benefits of continued growth are highly questionable. The costs are high and very real. We know our state doesn't have the water to supply a bigger population. Yet we persist in pursuing outdated, growth-oriented, "people-attracting" economic development strategies that create more problems than they solve.

It's time we set as our goal a "healthy economy" rather than a "growing economy."

The two are no longer synonymous.

Dave Gardner, Colorado Springs

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Men are pigs, rotten to the core

I must take issue with columnist Kathleen Parker's statement that "men are fundamentally good and sort of pleasant to have around."

As a card-carrying member of the male species myself and an expert on the subject, I can assure you that, without exception, all men are pigs and are rotten to the core.

David J. Baker, Colorado Springs

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Many fiscal conservatives are not

I had to chuckle at the May 29 headline regarding our mayor, our fearless leader, who would undo the will of the people as easily as he undid so much of the staff we had working for us, the townspeople.

I'm sure he considers himself a fiscal conservative, but here's the thing about so many fiscal conservatives: they're not. We the taxpayers doled out well over a million dollars in severance pay because we elected a man who doesn't play well with others.

Now that Mayor Bach has stacked his board rooms and offices with his cronies, he doesn't think we can handle the retail sales of a product that is by all accounts safer than the alcohol we've collected taxes on for the last 70 years.

Ask a few teenagers: which is easier to obtain? Pot or alcohol? The answer I consistently got was "pot." I'm guessing that is because alcohol is controlled by our collective, the state of Colorado, while pot is mostly controlled by a black market, which has become well-established since prohibition and does not check IDs for age.

Back to Bach: Colorado Springs needs the tax dollars and the control of its marijuana market, even more since we have a big spender (The Terminator) at the helm.